Motorsport Oil Change Recommendations

[The Zork]

Situation? - Modified SE, used for driving to and from tracks for sprints only. Not daily use.
How many sprint events before changing oil? Every time? or ???

[Magpie]

I change based on oil sampling results. Best $40 you will spend. You can send a sample away as often as you like initially so you build up a profile. Then when you have a reliable profile you change and test based on this.

Bonus is the oil sampling also tells you what is going on internally.

[NitroDann]

You;re probably overheating the oil every time you do a club day if you run a stock oil system.

Dann

[hks_kansei]

When you're doing a track day with the entry fees and associated costs, an extra $50 each time to change the oil is nothing.

[Magpie]

My oil costs more than $50 for a change

[hks_kansei]

Either way, still cheaper than a rebuild.

[Luke]

Changing oil after a single sprint event sounds excessive. Thats like 50-80kms of hard driving. 100kms if you get a really good day.

I use my SE very similar to your yours Zork.
Pretty much only drive it on the road to either get work done on it, drive it to the track or drive it just to keep the battery charged if has been sitting around for a while. On rare occasion I may take it for a trip somewhere if it is a suitable car themed event where I can accept driving an uncomftorble car.

I do my oil roughly every 3333kms which works out to be roughly 8 or so track events. The bigger portion of that 3333kms is the street driving getting to tracks.
The oil still comes out a bronze colour. Not dark.
Been doing it for years. 8 Years to be more exact.
I do the 10000km ones at MX-5 Mania for the log book stamp.

For the last few years I have been using Penrite 10Tenths Pao/Ester Premium Oil.
Just changed over to the Race Version a few weeks ago, since they dropped the Zinc content down in the Premium one from 2200PPM to 1800PPM.
Before Penrite I was using Elf Excellium which became to hard to get once MX5 Mania stopped using it hence going to Penrite.

[Tim_cyc03]

I change after every second race event, or every enduro.

Maybe Copy Luke, 8 years seems a good run.

[Ned Loh]

You;re probably overheating the oil every time you do a club day if you run a stock oil system.

Dann

That is no doubt true, however doesn't seem to cause any real issues for those running a good quality oil.

[The Zork]

Many thanks guys for all your comments.

In 18 years of racing in the Vic State Series, with a turbo 13b, I religiously changed the oil before every event. It worked, because I would get more than twice the engine re-build time as the engine builder recommended. Each time I dumped the oil, it looked as honey coloured as the new oil, still I continued to do it. After all, many say it is cheep insurance and better than an engine rebuild. BUT!!! Is this really the case? Would the engine survive similarly if the oil was changed every second or third time?

Is dumping good oil like paying insurance only to find the insurance company did not honour the claim anyway. Just a waste of money? I ran twin Mazda oil coolers with the 13b. The SE has an additional oil cooler with a filter re-rout and the temperatures for oil and water are normal even after a hard 15 minute session. I have done two days of sprints now and the oil is clear. Has anyone other than Luke had experience with prolonged oil use?

[Ned Loh]

see 2nd post in the thread. Oil analysis in the best way to know if the oil is doing the job. May also give you early notification of an upcoming problem.

[Magpie]

With respect to oil sampling...

1. You need to use the same oil consistently as this becomes the baseline. You can change but a new profile will need to be built
2. When you change oils, you keep a sample of what went in and a separate sample of what came out.
3. Since few of use by our oil in 205ltr drums it is prudent to have the before and after samples tested at the same time. This will give better results, but double the oil testing costs as the difference in batches is negated. Simply they compare the 2 tests and they these can be compared with previous tests.

[NitroDann]

You;re probably overheating the oil every time you do a club day if you run a stock oil system.

Dann

That is no doubt true, however doesn't seem to cause any real issues for those running a good quality oil.

Yes the engines survive, Id suggest changing every event if you are overheating it however.

[RS2000]

I presume people don't change their oil during events like the Wakefield 300
That would be equivalent to up to 5 track/supersprint days

[NitroDann]

How many last the full 300 with no oil cooler?